weeks under repair on the Clyde and at Faslane. On 15 June 1944 Dunnottar Castle left the Clyde to sail unescorted to Lagos and Takoradi. On 10 July she left Lagos for Egypt via convoys LTS 27, SR 15 and KMF 33, reaching Port Said on 31 July. In August she sailed from Suez to Bombay, joining Convoy AB 43 from Aden. After a week in Bombay she joined Convoy BM 100 to Colombo in Ceylon, and then continued unescorted to Australia and New Zealand. She called at Melbourne on 10–13 September, Wellington 17–30 September and then Fremantle 9–14 October 1944. She then returned to Egypt, reaching Suez on 4 November. On 16 November 1944 Dunnottar Castle left Port Said for home waters, joining Convoy MKS 68G at Gibraltar which merged with Convoy SL 177 on the voyage home. She reached Belfast on 13 December 1944. She remained in home waters until 31 March 1945, when she reached Southampton. A fortnight later she was in Le Havre. On 4 May Germany unconditionally surrendered, ending the war in Europe. On 25 June Dunnottar Castle left Southampton for Naples. She spent most of the rest of 1945 sailing between Britain and Mediterranean ports in Malta, Italy, Palestine and France, apart from one trip to Bergen in Norway in late August. Post-war passenger service Dunnottar Castle remained in UK Government service until 1948, when Union-Castle had her comprehensively overhauled. In 1949 she resumed her route between London and South Africa, but without her sister Dunvegan Castle, which had been sunk in 1942 in the Battle of the Atlantic. Dunnottar Castle played a small part in the search for the coelacanth. The telegram from Captain Hunt to Dr J. L. B. Smith noting the discovery of the second coelacanth in the Comoros reached him when the ship stopped in Durban on 24 December 1952. All of his scientific equipment was deep in one of the holds of the ship. Dunnottar Castle remained in liner service until Union-Castle sold her in 1958. Cruise ship Incres Steamship Co bought Dunnottar Castle and had her substantially remodelled as a cruise ship at the Wilton-Fijenoord shipyard near Rotterdam. She was given a new Fiat engine, new superstructure and a new raked bow. Her funnel was replaced with a streamlined modern one. Her two masts were removed and new derricks fitted. Her first and tourist class cabins were reconfigured